GDB 5.2 Available

From:

Andrew Cagney

Subject:

GDB 5.2 Available

Date:

Mon, 29 Apr 2002 19:37:50 -0400 (EDT)

GDB 5.2 is released!
Version 5.2 of GDB, the GNU Debugger, is now available via anonymous
FTP. GDB is a source-level debugger for C, C++, Pascal and many other
languages. GDB can target (i.e. debug programs running on) dozens of
different processor architectures, and GDB itself can run on most
popular Unix and Microsoft Windows variants.
You can download GDB from Project GNU's FTP server in the directory:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdb
The previous version, 5.1.1, was released roughly 3 months ago; and in
that time several new features have been added and many bugs have been
fixed. The details are below. In addition, a number of late breaking
problems have been identified and they are also mentioned below.
The vital stats:
-rw-r--r-- 1 cagney cagney 14695979 Apr 29 17:59 gdb-5.2.tar.gz
The md5sum checksum:
afb7d18f72be812ef405f6b271a36e03 gdb-5.2.tar.gz
There is a web page for GDB at:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/
That page includes information about GDB mailing lists (an
announcement mailing list, developers discussion lists, etc.), details
on how to access GDB's CVS repository, locations for development
snapshots, preformatted documentation, and links to related
information around the net. We will put errata notes and
host-specific tips for this release on-line as any problems come up.
All mailing lists archives are also browsable via the web.
Many people have contributed to this release. Thanks to everybody for
the help!
Keep those fixes and improvements coming in! (Send them to
address@hidden)
Andrew Cagney
on behalf of the GDB Developers.
*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
This can be a significant performance improvement on some
(notably embedded) targets.
* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
* New command line option
GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
* Changes in ARM configurations.
Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
configuration is fully multi-arch.
* New native configurations
ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
* New targets
Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
* OBSOLETE configurations and files
Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
permanently REMOVED.
AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
* REMOVED configurations and files
TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
WDC 65816 w65-*-*
PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
* Changes to command line processing
The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
for the inferior from gdb's command line.
* Changes to key bindings
There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
Known problems in GDB 5.2
See also: http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/
hppa2.0-hp-hpux10.20
--------------------
gdb/487: The top level make files used to build GDB are not compatible
with HP/UX make. As a workaround, use GNU make.
gdb/486: The HP/UX C compiler defaults to K&R mode but GDB only builds
with an ISO C compiler. The top level configuration incorrectly sets
CC to `cc' instead of `cc -Ae'. As a workaround, the correct compiler
can be specified as part of the configuration vis:
$ 'CC=cc -Ae' ./configure
s390*-*-*
---------
gdb/513: GDB does not build on s390 GNU/Linux. The problem should be
fixed in more recent sources.
i386-*-freebsd4.4*
------------------
gdb/455: GDB doesn't build on a FreeBSD 4.4-STABLE system. The
problem is still being investigated.